Tag: Facebook

I recently joined a blogging community on Facebook. {For other bloggers who want to meet new bloggers, follow this link.} One of the files is “Blogiversaries”. I’m sure you can guess what that is about. I went in search for my blogiversary. And mine is 24 October (I also remember that I did get a notification from WordPress, congratulating me on my blogiversary. I started to blog in 2008.

I have been blogging for 7 years now.

I decided that I want to post about lessons that I have learned about blogging. And since it has been 7 years, I am going to try and share 7 lessons I have learned.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t post every day

For some reason, I have always felt guilty when I didn’t post every day. Something I have seen, though, is that the average amount of posts on bloghomes is about one per week. And I am yet to see someone post every single day!

I am coming to terms with the idea to post once a week; and to not feel guilty if I don’t post every day.

Write about what you like

Don’t try to figure out what people want to read. Find something you like, and blog about that.

If you like 15 different things, blog about it. If you like random things, blog about it.

People will find your posts interesting, or they won’t. {Remember, there are 7+ billion people in the world, so there are a huge amount of different tastes.}

You won’t necessarily attract thousands (or hundreds) of readers in the first year

Don’t stop writing after a year if you had three comments a month or four followers. Remember, it takes time to grow a following or a fan club.

I stopped blogging a few months after I started, and I am still trying to recover.

If you mess up, don’t stop

Here I am talking about those times that you post something that you know is “below average”. Don’t stop. You never know who like that post and feels like it is very good.

Get the help of Social Media

There are people who see blogging as social media. I don’t agree.

Every time you post a blog, share the link on twitter and facebook (at least). That will broaden your exposure to more possible readers.

Keep it simple (and shortish)

Many people who want to read blogs, don’t want to read a 10000 word document or something with 15-letter words in it.

Keeping it simple is actually a case of perception. A mathematician’s “simple” and a theologian’s “simple” and a Star Trek fan’s “simple” might be three different kinds.

So I guess what I am saying is: Keep your target readers (“market”) in mind when you write.

Blogging in a language that is not your mother tongue is DIFFICULT, but keep going

I am Afrikaans. So writing in English is a challenge. But I decided that I will keep trying and practicing.

Extra: Ask for help; look for tips

I discovered the Blogging Elite on Facebook. There are tips to blog. I am starting to learn from those tips, as well as other bloggers.

This is not one of the tips, but I feel like I have to mention it.

Whatever you post, will always feel personal. Even if it isn’t on the level of “diary-personal”, it will still feel personal. The reason for this is because you put in your time and energy into the project. Even if I post something “light”, it still feels very personal.